Sunday, 5 February 2023

Noodle Hair Girl - a week of comics by kids in Dublin


Booked at very short notice, thanks to the initiative of Martina the brilliant librarian at St Aidans in Tallaght, this week I did three days of classes in schools in Dublin. She only contacted me the week before, having been in touch with the other schools herself, and a flurry of flight-booking later I was on my way over. Three days of teaching necessitated five overnight stays which, the truth be told, may make it one of the least profitable school weeks of the year. But it's been the most fun so far, and I'll take that.


Rath Dara was the one school that I hadn't visited before, and they were smashing. In the suburb of Blanchardstown, which is bigger than I at first realised. The hotel called itself Carlton Hotel Blanchardstown, but is in fact in Tyrrelstown. And the school is signposted Rath Dara Blanchardstown, but is in fact in Corduff. So, a 45 minute walk between both places. I tell you, relying as I am on public transport, I've been getting my exercise this week.


St Aidans comics. Another big challenge of this week was colouring the comic covers, which I try to do as soon as possible after each visit. But I haven't brought with me my Photoshop-loaded computer, working instead on the MacBook Air which has fewer programs (or Apps, as I believe the kids call them). After a bit of tinkering with downloadable apps that wouldn't work because the operating system's too old, I found onlinephotoshop.com which gives you pretty well the whole thing, working almost as well as it does in real life. So that was a nice find. I bet you couldn't tell that my shoddy colouring has a slightly better excuse for its shoddiness this time around.


Killinarden was the third and final school, after a Wednesday off which had been spent in my hotel room trying to write the crime novels. (I ended up writing a short story, as recorded here). The librarian is the eponymous Canadian called Linda that you see on that front cover.

The celebrities these six groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Ariana Grande, Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, Alex Turner (of Arctic Monkeys), Cardi B, and Bryan Cranston.


My Books and where to get them:

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy 
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon Etsy 
Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Lulu
Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1 Amazon -  Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Vol 2 - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu  - Etsy 
Punk Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper

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